This week chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak hailed his second Budget of 2021 as heralding a "new age of optimism" as the UK seeks to leave the Covid-19 pandemic behind it.

Are things that simple? On its surface, the Budget focused on reforming alcohol duty and business rates, and tinkering with air passenger duty, leaving many areas financial advisers might worry about unaddressed.

But with rising inflation, a hike in national insurance already in the pipeline and many allowances frozen in Sunak's previous Budget, for the panellists on this week's podcast the chancellor was carrying his own act of "tax avoidance".

This week Damian Fantato, FTAdviser's digital editor, is joined by Claire Trott, divisional director for retirement and holistic planning at St James's Place, Chris Etherington, private client tax partner at RSM, and David Battersby, portfolio manager at Sanlam.

They discuss why this Budget was more about the things left unsaid, why Sunak's optimism might not necessarily tally with some of the finer details in this week's fiscal statement and whether a solution has finally been found on the net-pay anomaly.

The FTAdviser Podcast is the weekly podcast for financial advisers, brought to you by FTAdviser. Each week, FTAdviser is joined by guests from the industry to discuss the week in news and pressing industry issues.

The FTAdviser Podcast is designed to inform regulated UK advisers on a range of topics, covering investments, pensions, regulation and other key issues.

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